“Just accept that I’m always working for your welfare, and there will be no need for troublesome independent thought.”

“Told you. I know people and I pay attention.”

“I miss war,” Beren said with a sad droop to his weathered features. “Sure, a bunch of us died, but at least there was an end to it, unlike all this talking.”

“Sometimes the world made no damn sense at all.”

“When someone is determined to do an awful thing, the timing doesn’t matter, only their intent to do wrong.”

“Seeing that first thing would’ve been creamy shit frosting on a turd cake of a day.”

“That shouldn’t feel like an epiphany, yet somehow it did. Pru had a way of cutting through the bullshit, a unique ability to drag him back from the brink and shove his ass down the road he needed to travel.”

“Please don’t tell me you run on hugs,” she said, stifling a laugh.”

“It was so easy to get lost in grand gestures and the big picture, but nothing would ever be more important than the pride’s smallest members.”